LabView and Connections with Third-Party Hardware

Data acquisition is a function that plays a fundamental role in the automatic supervision and system control, it combine the system (software and hardware) to the process to be controlled (real world). The field of application starts from research to automation, from industry to home automation, in practice everything that in some way must be performed without human supervision. Data acquisition systems are mainly used to measure physical phenomena such as: temperature, voltage, current, distance and pressure, shock and vibration, and displacement, RPM, angle and discrete events, weight. In order to measure it we need a DAQ , Data AcQuisition System, in this chapter we propose to use a cheap open source hardware: Arduino

MOSTO: A toolkit to facilitate security auditing of ICS devices using Modbus/TCP

The integration of the Internet into industrial plants has connected Industrial Control Systems (ICS) worldwide, resulting in an increase in the number of attack surfaces and the exposure of software and devices not originally intended for networking. In addition, the heterogeneity and technical obsolescence of ICS architectures, legacy hardware, and outdated software pose significant challenges. Since these systems control essential infrastructure such as power grids, water treatment plants, and transportation networks, security is of the utmost importance. Unfortunately, current methods for evaluating the security of ICS are often ad-hoc and difficult to formalize into a systematic evaluation methodology with predictable results. In this paper, we propose a practical method supported by a concrete toolkit for performing penetration testing in an industrial setting. The primary focus is on the Modbus/TCP protocol as the field control protocol. Our approach relies on a toolkit, named MOSTO, which is licensed under GNU GPL and enables auditors to assess the security of existing industrial control settings without interfering with ICS workflows. Furthermore, we present a model-driven framework that combines formal methods, testing techniques, and simulation to (formally) test security properties in ICS networks

Topical tacrolimus and vitiligo: our experience in sixty cases

Aim. Vitiligo is an acquired hypomelanotic disorder characterized by circumscribed depigmented maculae on the skin. Current treatment procedures include narrow band UVB therapy, topical corticosteroids and imunomodulators. Aim of our study was to evaluate the efficacy and safety of topical tacrolimus in the treatment of vitiligo. Methods. Sixty patients (44 females, 22 males) with stable vitiligo were enrolled in our study. They did not show any benefits from topical corticosteroids, PUVA and NB-UVB therapy, so they were administered topical tacrolimus 0.1% twice a day and followed-up for 9 months. Results. At least a partial repigmentation was noticed with tacrolimus ointment in 46 patients after 9 months of therapy. Twenty-three of them obtained a good repigmentation, already evaluable at 3 months from the beginning of therapy and remaining the same at 6 and 9 months, respectively. The other 23 patients obtained an excellent repigmentation, evaluable only at 9 months from the beginning of therapy, while a poor repigmentation was observed at 3 and 6 months. Two patients discontinued therapy because of side effects, while the remaining 12 had no repigmentation at all. Conclusion. Topical tacrolimus could be considered an effective and safe therapy for vitiligo, expecially for patients who had no benefits from corticosteroids and/or phototherapy

Lamb-dip cavity ring-down spectroscopy of acetylene at 1.4 μm

Doppler-free saturated-absorption Lamb dips are observed for weak vibration-rotation transitions of C2H2 between 7167 and 7217 cm−1, using a frequency-comb assisted cavity ring-down spectrometer based on the use of a pair of phase-locked diode lasers.We measured the absolute center frequency of sixteen lines belonging to the 2ν3 + ν1 5 band, targeting ortho and para states of the molecule. Line pairs of the P and Q branches were selected so as to form a ‘V’-scheme, sharing the lower energy level. Such a choice made it possible to determine the rotational energy separations of the excited vibrational state for J-values from 11 to 20. Line-center frequencies are determined with an overall uncertainty between 3 and 13 kHz. This is over three orders of magnitude more accurate than previous experimental studies in the spectral region around the wavelength of 1.4 μm. The retrieved energy separations provide a stringent test of the so-called MARVEL method recently applied to acetylene

A New Low-Energy Proton Irradiation Facility to Unveil the Mechanistic Basis of the Proton-Boron Capture Therapy Approach

Protontherapy (PT) is a fast-growing cancer therapy modality thanks to much-improved normal tissue sparing granted by the charged particles' inverted dose-depth profile. Protons, however, exhibit a low biological effectiveness at clinically relevant energies. To enhance PT efficacy and counteract cancer radioresistance, Proton–Boron Capture Therapy (PBCT) was recently proposed. PBCT exploits the highly DNA-damaging α-particles generated by the p + 11B→3α (pB) nuclear reaction, whose cross-section peaks for proton energies of 675 keV. Although a significant enhancement of proton biological effectiveness by PBCT has been demonstrated for high-energy proton beams, validation of the PBCT rationale using monochromatic proton beams having energy close to the reaction cross-section maximum is still lacking. To this end, we implemented a novel setup for radiobiology experiments at a 3-MV tandem accelerator; using a scattering chamber equipped with an Au foil scatterer for beam diffusion on the biological sample, uniformity in energy and fluence with uncertainties of 2% and 5%, respectively, was achieved. Human cancer cells were irradiated at this beamline for the first time with 685-keV protons. The measured enhancement in cancer cell killing due to the 11B carrier BSH was the highest among those thus far observed, thereby corroborating the mechanistic bases of PBCT

The hepatic expression of GH/IGF1 axis components is impaired with fibrosis progression in patients with HCV-related chronic hepatitis

Background and aim: Resistance to the action of growth hormone (GH), characterized by low serum levels of insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF1) in the face of high concentrations of GH, frequently complicates cirrhosis (Assy et al., 2008). Physiologically, the activation of GH receptor (GHR) determines phosphorylation of signal transducer and activator of transcription (STAT)-5 and the consequent induction of IGF-1 expression. The suppressor of cytokine signalling (SOCS)-3 negatively regulates this intracellular cascade. Since, to date, the hepatic expression of the GH/IGF1 axis components has been studied mainly in animal models (Blaas L et al., 2010), we aimed to evaluate their expression in the liver of patients with HCV-related chronic hepatitis. Methods: Fifty HCV patients were studied and liver samples were histologically re-evaluated for grading and staging. The expression of GH/IGF1 axis components was assessed by immunohistochemistry. Results: At the hepatocyte level, IGF-1 and phospho-STAT5 showed a negative correlation with fibrosis stage, while SOCS3 a positive one (p<0,05 for all). Furthermore, the hepatocyte expression of IGF1 was negatively correlated with its expression by hepatic stellate cells (p<0,05). Conclusions: IGF1 expression by hepatocytes was reduced with fibrosis progression, probably due to the impairment of GHR intracellular cascade. The inverse correlation between IGF1 expressed by hepatocytes and hepatic stellate cells suggests specific roles for IGF-I produced by different hepatic cells

An underground Sagnac gyroscope with sub-prad/s rotation rate sensitivity: toward General Relativity tests on Earth

Measuring in a single location on Earth its angular rotation rate with respect to the celestial frame, with a sensitivity enabling access to the tiny Lense-Thirring effect is an extremely challenging task. GINGERINO is a large frame ring laser gyroscope, operating free running and unattended inside the underground laboratory of the Gran Sasso, Italy. The main geodetic signals, i.e., Annual and Chandler wobbles, daily polar motion and Length of the Day, are recovered from GINGERINO data using standard linear regression methods, demonstrating a sensitivity better than 1 prad/s, therefore close to the requirements for an Earth-based Lense-Thirring test.Comment: 7 pages, 5 figure

GINGER

In this paper, we outline the scientific objectives, the experimental layout, and the collaborations envisaged for the GINGER (Gyroscopes IN GEneral Relativity) project. The GINGER project brings together different scientific disciplines aiming at building an array of Ring Laser Gyroscopes (RLGs), exploiting the Sagnac effect, to measure continuously, with sensitivity better than picorad/ s, large bandwidth (ca. 1 kHz), and high dynamic range, the absolute angular rotation rate of the Earth. In the paper, we address the feasibility of the apparatus with respect to the ambitious specifications above, as well as prove how such an apparatus, which will be able to detect strong Earthquakes, very weak geodetic signals, as well as general relativity effects like Lense-Thirring and De Sitter, will help scientific advancements in Theoretical Physics, Geophysics, and Geodesy, among other scientific fields.Comment: 21 pages, 9 figure

Stability of flows associated to gradient vector fields and convergence of iterated transport maps

In this paper we address the problem of stability of flows associated to a sequence of vector fields under minimal regularity requirements on the limit vector field, that is supposed to be a gradient. We apply this stability result to show the convergence of iterated compositions of optimal transport maps arising in the implicit time discretization (with respect to the Wasserstein distance) of nonlinear evolution equations of a diffusion type. Finally, we use these convergence results to study the gradient flow of a particular class of polyconvex functionals recently considered by Gangbo, Evans ans Savin. We solve some open problems raised in their paper and obtain existence and uniqueness of solutions under weaker regularity requirements and with no upper bound on the jacobian determinant of the initial datum